Ex-Trump Staffer Defends Graham Platner Amid New Allegations: He ‘Gets To Stay’

Deputy Communications Director for President Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign, Caroline Sunshine, said on Thursday night that Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner “should stay in the race,” despite new allegations of misconduct by ex-girlfriends.

Sunshine made the remarks hours after The New York Times, citing multiple women Platner had previously dated or associated with, alleged that Platner demeaned women and was occasionally physically threatening.

The most severe accusations came from “Virginia conservative” Lyndsey Fifield, who detailed an instance where Platner frightened her with physical aggression.

“During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, telling her to remain there until she was ‘calm,’” the Times report said. “Eventually, Ms. Fifield said, she fell asleep and left the next morning.”

Platner denied the allegations to MS NOW host Chris Hayes on Thursday, calling them “simply not true,” while his campaign noted in the Times piece that Fifield was “a lifelong G.O.P. operative who’s dedicated her career to electing Republicans.”

Sunshine discussed the report on Thursday’s edition of CNN’s NewsNight, defending Platner as an anti-establishment candidate whose non-status quo positions caused his past to “get dragged out in the light.”

She said:

I think he should stay in the race. I was never bothered by any of the scandals with Donald Trump. I’m not bothered by Graham Platner’s scandals at all. We have a two tiered system of scandal in our country. If you are the establishment political candidate of either party, all your scandals get to stay nice and tidy in the closet. But if you’re the anti-establishment, populist candidate of either party, Republican or Democrat, all of your scandals get dragged out into the light. As long as Ted Cruz, who is a sitting U.S. Senator, was allowed to flee his people in the middle of a blizzard, go off to the Four Seasons, Cancun, and then, when he was caught, blame his teenage daughter. If that guy gets to keep his Senate seat, Graham Platner gets to stay in.

The ex-Trump staffer went so far as to imply an organized effort to smear Platner and former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who resigned from his seat – and suspended his campaign for California governor – after a wave of accusations of sexual assault and harassment

“Are you not cluing in to any of the timing here? Isn’t it interesting that the allegations against Eric Swalwell came out when they did? And how the allegations against Graham Platner came out when they did? Are you sensing a pattern here? Politics is a dirty game. I’ve worked in it. I know,” she said, later adding, “You can be a flawed human being and do great things for the country. Welcome to American politics. I’m a realist.”

Watch above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!